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Free movement of goods has usually been a standard policy for the US Government since the sort of war with France in 1799 and sending the new (and tiny) US Navy to deal with the Barbary Pirates in the European's backyard. And while I don't think we ahve nearly as large a merchant fleet as we use to have (since so many companies are flagging ship in third world countries to get around legal issues), open trade is usually a big thing outside of war and embargos
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